We are DARK next week - Thursday, March 30th -- we are having a Happy Hour at the Junkyard. (Details below.)
President Laura welcomed Club Members, Zoom participants and Guests.
Laura talked this morning about upcoming events, including the District Assembly Training this weekend.
In addition, she reminded everyone that the dedication of the book vending machine at Crestview Elementary will be on Thursday, April 6th at 2 pm.
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Annika Sumby lead the Invocation this morning sharing the words of Maya Angelou.
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Flag Salute
Mike Sidlinger presented the flag salute this morning.
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Patrick Borovay
Kris Turner
Gina Truncale
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Demi Fox was our Greeter this morning.
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Both Gina Truncale and Brian Park, brought in by John Tolson, are being proposed as New Members - Second Notice.
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Laura reminded us that, since we are Darkon Thursday, March 30th, we will be having a Happy Hour at the Junkyard that evening at 6:00 PM. This would be a Buy Your Own Food and Alcohol event. Look forward to seeing you there!
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Bill Klepper is coordinating our next Blood Drive on April 6th. Contact Bill to sign ups are on the tables but since we are dark next week please contactbill@goklepper.com
to sign up today!
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Bill Klepper is organizing a way to honor our local school crossing guards on April 19th. He's arranging to have warm drinks delivered to the crossing guards in the morning and cold drinks in the afternoon.
He needs help with this so if you can assist, please contact Bill at: bill@goklepper.com
He needs help with this so if you can assist, please contact Bill at:
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Bill also reminded us that we will be joining a community-wide Tierra Rejada Clean Up day on Saturday, April 22.
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Bill Klepper reminded us our next Bolio event is on April 30th. It's being held at Haley's Valley Bowl, 5255 Cochran. Our Club will pick up the bowling fee so 100% of the $50 entrance fee will go to fighting polio. It will be a fun event involving other Rotary clubs for a great cause.
Registration is at
9:00 AM with bowling starting at 10:00 AM. Contact Bill if interested:
A reminder about the upcoming Happy Face Music Festival on May 27th. The Festival will be held from 1 PM to 7 PM at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park and will have an 80's theme. Tickets will go on sale April 1st. And Steve P. will be looking for help with obtaining
sponsorships. Stay tuned....
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Kailey Craig announced that we will be having a Lunch Social at the Berger's house on Saturday, April 22nd at 11:00 a.m. (It will be AFTER the Tierra Rejada Clean Up!)
Laura will prepare all the food you just need to bring a drink if you want something other than water and coffee!
YES! is scheduled for October 21, 2023! Dorina Timbol is leading the charge for YES! across the District and is asking that sign ups start early. This YES! program will be bigger and better than last year (which will be hard to do!) with discussions happening with, among others, the Simi Valley Chief of Police and the Simi Valley Unified School District Superintendent. One theme this year will be humanizing the police.
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John Baxter announced that Simi Valley has been officially recognized as an International City of Peace.
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Alyssa Potter said that our members can include a marketing piece in a GigabitNow mailer that will be going out to more than 4,000 residents soon. If you would like to have a piece included, please contact her at apotter@gigabitnow.com.
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John Baxter is looking for help to review and grade the 18 Four Way Test Essays he's received. They range from the 4th Grade up to Senior High School students. Please contact John if you are interested at:
And, much more importantly, a certain Principal of a certain Independent Learning Academy here in Simi Valley wanted to make sure that we all knew that John is now working at said Independent Learning Academy. Nice move for Monte Vista Dr. P.!
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A reminder about Herschel Berger's previous announcement regarding how Club funds will be allocated this year. As previously noted, this year will be the first since Covid hit that our Club has the ability to allocate funds to local organizations and activities. Herschel is heading up a committee to best decide just how this allocation should take place. A link to an application form in this regard has been created - see below. Please print out the form and forward it to the organization for them to fill out and submit to Herschel Berger at:
The last day to submit names for allocation is March 31st.
A copy of the 3 page Allocation Application form is shown below as well.
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A note from Mary Paseta regarding the Rotary Youth Exchange:
We are in need of host families for our Exchange Students. So far BJ, Laura and Mary have volunteered.
We have a total 12 students we need to host on Saturday, March 25th. Pick up would be at the Grand Vista Hotel around 9 pm and bring them back on Sunday at 9:00 am.
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Eric Witten
We had the pleasure of hearing from Eric, who is an engineer. He was planning a trip to Kenya, just before COVID-19, to help build a water well in Kenya for the Maasai tribe. But just as he arrived the country was put in lockdown and he was unable to leave the country for seven months.
During that time the women of the tribe built him a home and furnished it. He was 50 miles from Nairobi and 10 miles from the nearest market with no internet at all. Daily he would go for walks with the men and during those walks he found that there were existing water systems no longer in use. He also discovered a 12 foot pond that sat atop a hill that could be used to create a gravity water system - since the villages sat at the bottom of this hill. Together with the men of the village they dug tranches and eventually built a 4 mile water system made from steel and PVC pipes. They made sure that the elephants wouldn't be able to smash the pipes as the walked over them.
Throughout the time he also built a latrine and shower for the people and help fix up the Maasai Heritage Museum.
He shared photos of this time there.
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A note from Jim Lewis:
Good afternoon fellow Rotarians, Family and Friends,
Great news in this week's report on the war on Polio. Take some time and read through Bob's report attached and the information on our Polio Plus Society. New ways to give and we now have new pins for members giving $1,000 or more to PP.
Please, as I always ask you, pass this information on to all your club members, your family and your friends in the world that really care about our efforts to End Polio Forever.
Thank you.
Yours in Rotary Friendship,
Jim Lewis
PP RC of Moorpark
International Service Chair
D 5240 Polio Plus Committee Chair
Rotary Rose Parade Float Committee National Advisor
818 399-9870
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John Tolson
Fun fact #1 - John sold make-up for 18 years.
Fun fact#2 - John once had a wholesale business here in Simi Valley on Runway St, selling helium and other items for parties.
Harvey Mahler
Fun fact #1 - Harvey has run a full marathon and bicycled 100 miles.
Fun fact #2 - Harvey grew up in South Central Los Angeles and married his High School Sweetheart.
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Deb Davila checked in with our fellow Club member, Ryan Valencia, recently. Ryan is currently deployed in the Middle East and Deb asked Ryan if there was anything he or his Unit needed. He said he was being well taken care of but what he suggested we all could do is volunteer with the For The Troops organization. He asked that we gather items from the Wish List posted above and get them packed up and sent overseas.
Deb is coordinating this effort and said that if you didn't have time to purchase items from the Wish List, simply give her a donation and she will make the purchase for you. Deb can be contacted at:
B.J. Anderson asked that we post this announcement. Gary Stewart is a past president of Simi Sunrise who had a very successful year and Karen was with Simi Sunset.
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Jake Finch previously gave us an update on the Gift Card program she initiated with the Club last March. These were the Gift Cards that were donated to help Simi Valley school kids and their families in need. Jake gave us some stark statistics. She said that there are 214 children in K-12 that are homeless here in Simi with 58 of those in High School. In addition, there are 63 Foster Children, 27 of whom are in High School.
The good news is that, since last March, 115 Gift Cards have been donated totaling $4,875 with $1,850 of that being disbursed to those in need. Over $3,000 of that amount was from our Club alone! Our Club is AWSOME!
More help is always appreciated Jake said and that while Gift Cards to Kohls and Target are helpful, she said that she's also looking for Gift Cards to stores like Aldi and Smart & Final as well.
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Bill Klepper asked that this flyer be posted. See Bill for details. His email is:
Mike Kort, president of the Rotary Club of Simi Sunset, announced their 12th annual Johnna's Tea Party at the Grand Vista Hotel on April 23rd. Mike is looking for volunteers to help out as waiters or donations for the event. His club is also selling raffle tickets for a trip to Italy. The tickets cost $100 with the trip itself valued at $6,500. See Mike Kort for details at:
When the secretary adds a new member to our roster, you will receive an automatic email that gives you your login ID and a temporary password so that you can access the web site (ClubRunner). This gives you the opportunity to upload a photo and enter a permanent password. You can go to the public portion of our website (no login required) and see the calendar, list of officers, birthdays, past bulletins, etc. The link to the public portion of our website is:
There is a phone app that can be downloaded to your phone; everyone should have that app on their phones. You will have to download the app and then log in the first time. After that, the login portion is not required.
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Please remember to bring a friend or an acquaintance to our next meeting. This is a GREAT way to grow our membership!
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Our next meeting on March 23rd will be in person at the Best Western Posada Royale at 1775 Madera Road starting at 7:00 AM. Looking forward to seeing everyone!
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